Tobacco-stripper.



TOBACCO STEPPER.' 4 nrmolmron Turn nn'o. as, 1m.

, Patented Apr; 20,v 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

I'. SALOMON.- ToBAcco ST'RIPPBB.

APPLIOATIOI FILED DBO. 28, 1900.' 91 9,297. Patented Apr.` 20. 1909.

2 SHBBTHHEET 8.

v.a subject of the King of Great Britain, resid,

UNITED STATES PMENT FREDERICK SALOMON, oF LIVERPOOL, ENoLArD, AssIeNon To cRYPToiPAT-ENTS LIMITED or' LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND. U

TOBACCO-STRIPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Application led December 28, 1906. Serial Nola-19,914.

To .all it may concern.:

Bei .known that I, FREDERICK SALOMON,

ing at Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster,

'in the Kingdom of England, tobacco broker,

have invented certain new and useful lmprovementsin Tobacco-Strippers, for .which application has been made in Great Britain, No. 13,834, dated June 16, 1906.

vThis invention relates to certain improvements in tobacco strippers and embodies the several elemental parts hereinafter described, each' ossessin, ;\new or improved features, and being combined to form a complete orglanization he'principallelementalparts of this ma chine are the leaf-transporting devices, the loafdlattening cleaning and straightening appliances, and the stemming and shredding mechanism, and to these are added the. actuatingmechanism by which the several de.-

`'wieesf are made to operate in unison .and at 'proper intervals to-constitutean' automatic machine for pre aring'the leaf.

The devices or removing and shreddingA .the stem introduce new features in theirV mode of o 'eration from prior structures, and

. ratesV the stem from i plan view instead o forcing or tearing the stem from the leaf portionwhich is so liable to leave small portions of the leaf attached to and be carried off with the stem, the machine sepaf the leaf with a clean straight cut. l

Thel invention will be understood lfrom the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 -1s a plan view of my apparatus with frame containing the upper brushes and. rolls raised on its hinge so as to show ,the

parts below; Fig. 2 a side elevation; Fig. 3 a cross section through the conveyjer bands and straight' edge on an 4enlarged scale; Figs. 4 and 5 a plan view and elevation of cutting or shredding device on an enlarged scale. Fig. 6 is a cross section showing the arrangement of moving straight 'edge or templet; Fig. 7 a

of circular brushes arranged diagon Fig. 8 isa'. detalfragmentary secview of a slightly modiied form of the.

structure shownV in Fig. 3.1 Fig. 19 is La' top plan view of Fig. 8. -v

l carry the invention into-effect as 'fols lows:-

At one end of the machine is awstationary table A, on which a supply ofleavesijafter being damped is laid. At one side of. this table A, there is aV conveyer Cf'oi'some suitable iiexible material, such as a smoothy tape of steel, brass or the lilre,fand this conveyer is rather wider than the'fstem F othelea't lts action is to feed forward longitudinally the stem of the leaf b'utnotftoy impale itor in any way prevent a lateral movementbeing imparted to it. There aretwo of these conveyers C and D aboveA andv below, with the stem clamped between, but the one. above D extends 'for a part of the length of the lower one C# Adjacent tof'this smooth surfaced conveyer and parallel thereto, 'is' amoving table or conveyer E of' fairly rough material so as to provide the necessary grip,1and5made wide enough to receive the web B oi' the leaf when folded'. This conveyerf E. is longer than the leaf B and is adapted to feedslthe leaf forward to revolving brushes Gi'. placed above the oo nveyer. The leaves' B are not superimposed but theypreferably overlap each other at the ends'so'fas toiormxa continuous feed of leaves, see" dotted lnes,fFig. 1. The leaves are foldedlongitudinally so that the stem Fis at v'tliefold- H-H indicate the pulleys around.: which the conveyers C and Eare passed,vand l-l indicate guide rolls Jfor adjusting the tight ness of the conveyers. The `folded web B ci' the leaf is laid on the wide conveye'r E and the stem F on the smooth'suriac-e ofthe conveyer CJ, The leaves'v are `cfa'rri-ed forward by conveyors C and Eand 'bytherevolving brushes G positioned "above" the conveyers which` are mounted' on;theltransverse-axes J, journaled in the frame'18 whichis hinged at 19 so asto be capable fofbe'ing' raised to a vertical position as [shown-in Fig. 2. l-The -Webs of the leaves B are neit'ied between spiral revolving brushesK placed' longitudinally of ysaid frame, the conveyers'f()v and D holding the stem irrgrfip.l y fflheconveyer E which is comparatively wide is guided on a bed L and the conveyers C and D are also guided on beds N or N', the rib M being formed a`t the edge of the bed L. Immediately above this is a stationary rib O formed on the guide N parallel with the rib M below, with a narrow space between just wide enough for the folded leaf B to pass, but too narrow to.- perm'it of the stern F passing through. The two ribs lvl and O in conjunction, constitute a straight edge or templet.

The brushes versely; and also re nove sand and dust therefrom without howeveror in any way injuring it. They further act to draw the leaf laterally so as to cause the stem to abut against the straight edge O M and thus IJring the stern of sively into line with each other. The brushes rotate so as to discharge the sand and dust away from the machine, and are driven by ,of the leaves from the stems any suitable form of gearing, such for example as by a chain P driving the countershaft Q, which drives the lower brushes by the bevel gear l?. and the upper brushes get their rotation from the main shaft S in a similar' manner. The conveyers C D E derive their motion from the shaft S in any suitable manner, e. g. by chain T and gears U. Just before the spiral brushes are reached., the broad endless band E passes ,around a pulley and returns to the end of the machine.

A'featureof my invention is the removal with ablean straight cut along the full length of the stems, as distinct from the usual wiping or stripping motion. .The stem of tobaccoleaves is taper, being considerably larger at one end than the other, and consequently there has always hitherto been a difficulty in removing the stern from the leaves Without any party of the leaf being left adhering to' the stem. This difficulty I have now completely overcome, as l fold the leaf longitudinallyat the stern F and pass it into the machine, and then the folded leaf as soon it is acted upon by the spiral brushes, is. 'drawn laterally, with the stems,drawn tight against the straight edges M and O, so that all the stems at that edge are in line 'and thuswhen they reach the cutting mechanism they are severed from the web with a clean'straightl out. lf desired l .can arrange above the upper metallic tape D, a stationary guide N', about the sarne upper guide N and tape Das well 4asthe lower guide N and tape Care -arrangedto converge transversely toward the opening between the ribs M O so as to form a V shaped channel between the upper and lower tapes, as shown in Fig. S. `v

ln order'to reduce friction to a minimum,

K 'are spiral ones, placed above and below the leaf, and they act tov flatten and straighten out the leaf trans-1 tearing the leaf each leaf, succes.

width as the tape, an-.i the- Il, replace tne ribs M and O' of the straight edge or templet,.by guts or Wires 2 (Figs. 6 and 7,) superimposed one above thel other, withfa small space between, as to travel, around the groovedpulleys 3 in the same direction and at the saine s eed as the conveyor D can be dispensed with, but

just about the point where the teniplet begms.

templct and take the place of the ribs MIO.

asto admit of the web between them, but not wide enough to allow the stem F to pass through In order to allow for inequalities in the leaf, the grooved pulleys 3 are mounted o n arms 4 arranged so as to be resilient, and allow the pulleys-to give alittle. 5 is the framework supporting .the said arms. n

instead of using spiral brushes, 'l can use ordinary circular brushes 6 (Figs, 6 and 7) mounted in bearings 7 the centers of which are placed at an angle to the straight edge or templet. Strong leaves'can have the angle of the brushes arranged very abrupt, the angle at which the brushes operate being simply one of degree. lDelicate leaves require to have a much less abrupt angle so as to help the forward motion of the leaves without undue lateral "ulling or brushing but brush them more in t e line of their vein.

8 are gears for d iving the brushes at suitable speed.

The stemming or shredding mechanism is 'as follows z-There is acircular knife blade V with serrated edges or teeth located close to the end of the'brushes K. andai; a point where the straight edge M O terminates, .and this blade revolves at an accelerated sneed. This knife is bound to sever the stem B of the leaf passing the full length of the stems stems by ine-ans of the straight edge or templet are resentedto it in line. There .is no tearing .of the stemfrom the leaf but a Vclean straight cut, and there lare no small sections of leaf remaining or carried off by the stem and consequently nosubsequent stem-eleaning at tachmentis neeessary. During the cutting off ofthe stein, the cut-off stem portion falls down-at side of the charged thence to. receiver. l can however if desired shred the stem simultaneously to cutting it olf the web of the leaf by pro viding additional revolving blades W placed one behindthe other anda little. distance apart sidewise. Between .each blade is .a longitudinal strip X bifurcated to perrniu` the blades to enter, and these strip act in conjunction with the blades to s 'ed the and mountedso- The wires 2 in such case constitute the' By this arrangement a' ino-.ving straight edge is provided traveling at the-same speed as the leaf. The space between the wires is such4` the leaves are being fed along. Insuc cases the conveyer C an remain, or it can stop El from the leaf B with a straight cut along y because all the blade and is disalgae? stem. The stems rest on these strips X while being shredded.

All the moving parts of the machine are connected through a series of gearing so as to be driven from a single prime mover, such as a driving pulley 12 which together With a loose ulley 13 is mounted on the driving shaft d) supported in bearings 1401i the frame 15, and there is a belt fork 16 for shifting the driving belt 17 by means of a handle. All the elements Whose movements" have to be timed and proportioned one to the other are connected together and caused to act in harmony, as they have one prime mover in common. The brushes G, and the u per brushes K, are mountedv in a frame 18, W ich is hinged to the frame 15 at 19. This frame is shown raised in the figures, so as to display the parts below, but in its working position it 1s of course turned down.

There may be a clutch mechanism pro-- vided to enable the operator to vary the speed of the brushes.

The general operation of the machine may be briefly summarized as follows A quantity of damped tobacco leaves B is placed upon the table A. The machine having been started the operator places the leaves one by one on the conveyers C and E, the stems resting on the metallic conveyer C and the web or lamina, on the other one E. These conveyers together With the conveyer l) carry them to the spiral or other brushes Which straighten out the web of the leaf transversely and remove such sand and dust as may adhere to the same, also, as alreadyexplained, draw the leaf laterally so that the stems are pulled against the straight edge M O. The leaf is next carried through the cutting and shredding -mechanism W by which the stein is cut off from the Web of the leaf with a clean straight cut throughout its lengthyA and the leaves are delivered of substantially uniform Width and can 4be dealt With as` desired.

I declare that what I claim is:-

1.,-In a tobacco stripper, means to engage andladvance a folded leaf having its blades engaging, and means to exert simultaneous forward and lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf.

2.' In a-tobaoco stripper, means to engage and advance a folded leaf having its blades engaging, means to exert simultaneous for- Ward and lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf, and means for severing the blades of the leaf from the stem While under such tension.

3. In a tobacco stri per, travelin meansA 4. In a tobacco stri per, traveli Vmeans adapted to engage an advance a fo ded to bacco leaf at the juncture of .thelstemi and v lamina, and rotating brushes adapted to enf' gage and ,exert simultaneous forward and lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf.

' 5. In a tobacco stripper, traveling means adapted to engage and advance the stem of a folded tobacco' leaf having its blades in enf gagement, means to exert simultaneous forward and lateral tension upon the' .blades of the leaf, and means to sever the blades and stem.

6. In a tobacco stripper, traveling means adalpted to engage and ladvance afolded leaf Wit its blades in engagement,v means to exert simultaneous forward and lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf, and a rotating knife disposed adjacent the traveling means,

and positioned to sever the stem and leaf while under such tension.

7. In a tobacco stripper, traveling means adapted to engage and'advance a folded leaf, brushes arranged to exert simultaneous for- Ward and lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf, and a knife disposed adjacent the traveling 'means and adapted to sever the f leaf and stem.

8. In a tobacco stripper, means adapted to engage and advance a folded leaf, having its blades in engagement, brushes arranged to exert simultaneous forward and lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf, and a ro-- tating knife disposed adjacent ,the traveling means, and positioned to sever the leaf from the stem While under such tension.

9. In a tobacco stripper, travelin means adapted to engage and advance a foIded leaf having its blades in engagement, rotating brushes adapted to engage and exert simultaneous forward and lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf, and a rotating knife disposed adjacent ythe traveling means and'posi tioned to sever the blades from the stern While under such tension.

10. In a tobacco stripper, traveling means adapted to engage and advance a folded leaf having its blades in engagement, and rotating brushes adapted to engage theu er and under side of and exert simultaneous orward and. lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf.

11. In a tobacco stripper, traveling means adapted to engage and advance a foldedleaf having its bladesin contact, rotating brushes disposed to engage the up er and under side of and exert simultaneous orwa'rd and lateral tension upon the blades of the leaf, and a knife adjacent the traveling means and positioned to sever the' stem and blades While under such tension.

12. In a tobacco stripper, traveling means adapted to engage and advance a folded leaf lhaving its blades in contact, and spiral brushes mounted to rotate and engage the of the leef, While folded, and a rotating knife upper and under side of and exert simultanel disposed adjacent the traveling means and ous forward and lateral tension upon the l' positioned to sever the leaf and the stem. bledes o the leef. ln witness whereof, I have hereunto signed 5 13. ln a tobacco stripper, traveling means g my name this 14th day of December 1906, in 15 edepted to engage and advance a folded leef 2 the presence of two subscribing Witnesses. having its blades in Contact, spiral brushes FREDERICK SALOMON.

mounted to rotate upon and engage the up- 'V'itnesses: er and under side of and exert simultaneous G. C. DYMOND,v

w orwer'd and lateral tension upon tlie blades WM. PIERCE. 

